A teenager charged with stealing a car in broad daylight out of the Taunton Daily Gazette’s parking lot came back the next day after being arraigned in district court — to ask the owner if she’d be kind enough to return some personal belongings he inadvertently left in the back seat.

A Taunton man, who police say was arrested last week for stealing a car in broad daylight out of the Taunton Daily Gazette’s employee parking lot, came back the next day after being arraigned in district court — to ask the owner if she’d be kind enough to return some personal belongings he inadvertently left in the back seat.

Police say that John Wetherell, 17, of 14 Grant St., just after 2 p.m. last Friday asked a male Gazette employee on his way into the building if he would ask the 23-year-old employee if it would be okay for him to retrieve some things he had left behind.

Taunton police patrolman William Rutherford responded and spoke to the woman whose car had been stolen the day before. He said she gave permission to return a “pile of stuff” in the back seat, including clothes and more than one pair of barber shears.

“We put it in a big plastic bag and handed it over to him,” Rutherford said.

State police trooper John Santos said that he was patrolling the Hodges Street area Thursday at around 4:30 p.m. when he noticed a Hyundai Sonata with an expired registration sticker.

Santos reported that when he pulled the car over he found Wetherell driving and another teenager, identified as Michael Menard, 19, of 194 South Main St., Raynham, in the passenger seat.

Santos said that Wetherell, who had no valid driver’s license or registration, appeared nervous and was sweating and shaking. At one point he told the trooper that he had borrowed the car from a friend named A.J., but that he didn’t know who in fact the owner was.

Santos also said that Wetherell had two pills in his pocket, later identified as Clonazepam, a prescription muscle relaxant.

A subsequent computer check showed that the Hyundai was the same one reported stolen two hours earlier from the Gazette parking lot. Luckily for the owner, she had neglected to update her registration sticker.

Wetherell was charged with receiving a stolen motor vehicle, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and illegal possession of a Class E drug. He was arraigned Friday morning in Taunton District Court and released on personal recognizance, with the stipulation that he report once a week to the probation department until a pre-trial hearing on Sept. 14.

Menard was charged with a single count of receiving a stolen vehicle and was also released on personal recognizance. His pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.

The car’s owner said she doesn’t know how the two teenagers managed to get into her car, but that there didn’t appear to be any sign of forced entry or damage; the only thing missing, she said, was one music CD.

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She also said she has since gotten a new registration sticker.